From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Agatha Christie

Start date: November 1, 2019

Finish date: November 30, 2019

Discussion: Archive: Poirot Buddy Reads

Why we're reading this: Next in our series of Poirot buddy reads.
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Archive: Poirot Buddy Reads

* Reading Order for the Unofficial Poirot Buddy Reads
By Jessica-sim · 54 posts · 155 views

last updated Dec 27, 2020 08:20AM

Poirot Buddy Read 40: SPOILER THREAD Curtain
By Jessica-sim · 20 posts · 35 views

last updated Feb 05, 2021 06:12PM

What Members Thought

Aug 08, 2020 Kavita rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: uk, mystery, golden-age-mystery

Poirot is at his dentist's for a checkup and attributes the strange atmosphere there to his nervousness. It was rather nice to know that the inimitable Hercule has his Achilles' heel like the rest of us mere mortals! Later in the day, the dentist shoots himself. Poirot does not believe this version and sets out to discover the truth. When a patient dies, and another goes missing, even Japp is convinced that something shady is going on.

There are a number of suspects including a foreign blackmaile ...more

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Oct 12, 2021 Bev rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, vintage-mystery, british-mystery, agatha-christie

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Oct 12, 2021 Bev rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, vintage-mystery, british-mystery, bought-2016, agatha-christie

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Aug 17, 2021 Bev rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, vintage-mystery, mount-tbr-2021, british-mystery, bought-2018

Hercule Poirot, like many people, dreads going to the dentist--even when the dentist is a good as Mr. Morley. Most people don't dread the dentist so much that they decide to shoot him to put themselves out of their misery. But the fact remains that Mr. Morley has been shot and will never scare a timid patient with his drill again. Inspector Japp believes it to be suicide, though a motive is sadly lacking. Morley seemed to have no particular worries. His money situation was fine and he had no rom Hercule Poirot, like many people, dreads going to the dentist--even when the dentist is a good as Mr. Morley. Most people don't dread the dentist so much that they decide to shoot him to put themselves out of their misery. But the fact remains that Mr. Morley has been shot and will never scare a timid patient with his drill again. Inspector Japp believes it to be suicide, though a motive is sadly lacking. Morley seemed to have no particular worries. His money situation was fine and he had no romantic entanglements. Poirot is more inclined to believe in murder. But, again, a sufficient motive is nowhere to be found.

When one of Morley's patients, a Greek by the name of Amberiotis, dies of an overdose of dental medication, Japp is absolutely certain that Morley killed himself in a fit of remorse after realizing he had given Amberiotis the wrong dose. Then another patient goes missing and her body is later found stuffed in a chest. Poirot must work his way through hints of political intrigue; hush-hush advice from a former Home Office johnny (who knows foreign spies when he sees them); blackmail; conferences with high-flying financiers; and corpses with battered faces who may or may not be who we think they are. Throw in a couple of hot-headed young men with dreams of over-throwing the status quo and who knows who murdered whom and for what purpose.

While I always enjoy Dame Agatha and Hercule Poirot, I have to say that this one feels very much like Poirot pulls the solution out of a hat. I recognized the basics of what was going on with one of the deaths, but I did not see the leap from one small sentence to the line of reasoning that Poirot produces for his solution. All of the evidence is tracked down off-scene and the reader isn't given the chance to see it before Poirot confronts the killer at the end.

It's an exciting little mystery and a fair amount of fun--but not one of her best in my opinion. With the hints of espionage and financial intrigue in addition to blackmail and personal animosities, it seemed like Christie was trying to do a bit too much in one story.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks. ...more

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May 13, 2014 Amy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Was in the car for work today and listened to this whole book. I've decided I only need two categories to rate an Agatha Christie book - loved it or meh. This was meh. It didn't feel like her other novels at all to me. Highly political and rather hard to follow. You expect a lot of characters in a British novel but this was almost too many for a seasoned mystery loving Anglophile like me to follow. ...more

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